Private sector - Business and economics

It is expected that many new companies will register at the stock exchange in Iceland this year. The market value of the shares registered is estimated to be around 70 bn ISK, or around 450 million EUR. This would mean a 35-40% expansion of the Icelandic stock market.

Statistics Iceland now publishes the Economic Accounts for Agriculture for the second time. The original compilation of the EEA was financed by an IPA grant received from the European Union but the present work is now financed by the Icelandic government. Older data has in some cases been revised due to methodology improvements and access to new or better data.

MP Bank is the smallest of the four largest commercial banks in Iceland. The bank tax has been highly increased, and this tax applies to financial institutions. To protect smaller financial institutions there is a threshold you have to pass before the tax applies, and MP Bank is extremely close to this threshold.

A new train between Keflavik international airport and Reykjavik could decrease travel time down to 20 minutes and increase possibilities for domestic flight. The cost for this project could be around €600 million - €670 million, and the train that is being looked can go up to 200 km/hour.

The American technology giant Apple recently sent out a press release where the Icelandic software developer Plain Vanilla is names as one of the companies that Apple believes that App Store customers should pay close attention to in 2014.

The popular Icelandic app, Quiz Up, has been downloaded over one million times by people all over the world. This great milestone was passed last night and it only took 8 days. The App is a quiz game where two people compete, by answering questions about certain topics.